Letter to Parents – 7th May 2020

I hope that this message finds you and your family well and you are feeling that you are coping with our current challenging situation.

Hopefully you have managed to settle into a routine that allows you to balance all of the demands on you at home and that you are feeling well supported by the school, to help to continue your child’s learning as best as you are able to at home. Most importantly, I hope that you have found ways to enjoy the positive benefits of having more time together at home as a family and that you are all feeling healthy.

Parent Help

Please do remember that your child’s tutor and Head of House are available to you to offer support and so if you have any concerns that you think they may be able to help with, please do not hesitate to get in touch with them. Equally, if you have any concerns regarding learning in a particular subject, then you can email the subject help email addresses and the Curriculum Director or a member of the subject team will be available to provide support.

Please do ensure that you have visited the Parent Help section on the front page of our website to access further information on all of the above as well as signposting to resources and services to support your family’s health and wellbeing too.

Progress Reporting to Parents

Shortly before Easter just as the social distancing restrictions started, we collected a set of grades from teachers for all students in Years 7 to 10; over the next week we will be sending these out to you by post so that you are fully aware of the progress your child was making before lockdown began.

Support for Year 11 students

Our local colleges now have worked together to produce online resources to help support Year 11 students in moving from school to college courses, apprenticeships or employment and this week there are now subject specific resources available. Your child will be able to click on their chosen college and select their course and find resources to help them prepare for when they start their course. By clicking on the following link it will take students through to the subject specific resources.

We strongly encourage all Year 11 students to make this their learning focus over the coming months so that they can be as prepared as possible for their futures post-ALNS; once again, do make contact with your child’s tutor or Head of House if you think they can be of support in motivating your son/daughter to engage with these resources.

Online Learning at Home

Since 23rd March when schools were closed to the majority of students, I have been pleased to hear that so many of our students are engaging positively with their learning at home; however, we are aware that your children may not have been able to make as much progress at home as they would have done normally and that they will need some extra support to catch-up on their learning when we enter the next phase of our country’s battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.

If you are finding that you are having difficulties with access to devices or with internet connection, please do make contact with Mr Hutton on [email protected] as we may be able to offer some assistance.

Next Phase ….

We await the changes to the restrictions of ‘lockdown’ that the senior politicians have suggested will be announced at the end of this week and you will no doubt be fully aware of all of the speculation regarding schools ‘re-opening’ from politicians and journalists and on social media over the past few weeks.

It seems unlikely that we will be able to safely return to re-opening the whole school at once and I expect that we will be looking at a ‘phased return’ to school for our students. It may well be that many of our school routines will have to change considerably to ensure that we are keeping all of our school community as safe as possible whilst they are on site. There is certainly a lot to work for the leadership of the school to do over the next few weeks as we plan for the next phase and, as always, I want to make sure that your views are central to our decision-making.

As such, I will be writing to you next week seeking your reflections as parents on how well learning has been able to continue over the past 6 weeks whilst children have been required to stay at home. I would also be grateful to hear your questions, comments, suggestions and concerns regarding any potential re-opening of our school so that I can ensure that these are addressed in all of our planning for the future.

For now, I would just like to once again express my gratitude for your continued efforts to support your child’s learning and for your tremendous support for our wonderful school community – your positive feedback and comments on social media have been greatly appreciated by staff and myself, thank you!